A View from the Dunghill: Learning Forbearance in a Synodal Church

Abstract

Many conservative Catholics in the US have managed to project an aura of orthodoxy and submission to the Magisterium even as they move the Catholic Church to identify more firmly with neo-conservative and free-market political movements. By outlining this “masked dissent” (portraying itself as radical fidelity to the Magisterium) and bringing the ecclesiological insights of Joseph Komonchak to bear on the assessment of this new form of dissent, this article outlines the limits of reception and dissent in the life of the church and suggest that a shift to a more collaborative and consultative polity, such as the exploration of a “synodal way” currently explored at the Synod of Bishops, supplies a way forward in keeping with the very nature of the church which nevertheless requires a dramatic shift in the popular understanding of authority and teaching. This shift in polity holds the promise of promoting an authentically catholic unity, providing space for the “forbearance” of certain kinds of dissent as the Pilgrim Church waits on God’s voice, even if the latter provides no clear resolution, as in the case of the biblical story of Job.